Conrad's Potjie
Shukri Conrad, the Proteas, and Potjie
Schalk Engelbrecht was stirring a soup in a 1-litre measuring jug. The 21-year-old didn't know what was in it or when and where it would be needed. He was simply fulfilling a request from Shukri Conrad. Gerald Coetzee was smelling spices, trying to decide which spice to use as soon as the beef arrived.
Tristan Stubbs was burning a pot on the charcoal as he waited for the arrival of the chicken. Dane Paterson was waiting for the snoek, destined for the braai. In the meantime, he went from station to station checking progress.
The less chaotic post was the veggie station. It was manned by Keshav Maharaj, the foodie in the team. The spinner was the only one who looked in control of things. Maharaj was sautéing onions and garlic with spices. The potatoes and chick peas were far from being needed, however, Maharaj already had them parboiled.
The South Africa Test team was having a potjiekos cook-off to the rhythm of a Kagiso Rabada-curated playlist in the background. The pacer was multitasking: DJing and occasionally attending to the beef station when needed.
Potjiekos or potjies, for short, is a staple in South African households. Its roots go back to the early 19th century. The Voortrekkers used to cook a stew of venison and vegetables (if available) in the potjie. While travelling, the trekkers (pioneers) shot wild game and added it to the pot. The large bones were included to thicken the dish. Each day when the wagons stopped, the pot was placed over a fire to simmer. New bones replaced old, and fresh meat took the place of the meat eaten.
Potjiekos was a one-pot wonder. It has evolved with time. People no longer throw in whatever meat they get hold of into the pot. It is more organised, and the beef potjiekos might be the most popular variation. However, the Proteas couldn't make a single potjie, there are vegetarians in the team, people who eat meat but don't eat beef, and so on.
So, the various potjies were a way to accommodate everyone.
Shukri Conrad is his father's son. Sedick or Dickie Conrad was an opener. So was Conrad. He pursued his dreams with a single-minded drive, and Conrad is no different.
Dickie spent a lot of time playing club cricket and only earned a first-class cap at 29. There were a lot of factors at play, racial segregation being the chief reason. However, once he got there, he wanted more. Dickie played only 10 first-class matches, nine in the Dadabhay Trophy and one for the South African Board President's XI that played against the DH Robins XI touring team in 1975.
The match against the DH Robins XI was the summit. South Africa was barred from international cricket, and these private tours were as good as it got. Dickie shared the dressing room and shared insights with legends like Eddie Barlow, Barry Richards, Graeme Pollock, and Spook Hanley. They were up against a Brian Close-captained side that featured a certain Tony Greig.
However, getting to the top had its costs. The non-racial Western Province union felt that Dickie’s inclusion, alongside Edward Habane, was a tokenistic move meant to appease the rest of the world but without commitment to an inclusive sport. They felt that Dickie had betrayed their cause by lending them credibility and barred him from competing in the non-racial league.
The consequences were far-reaching and went beyond Dickie’s career. A few years after the match, Hasan Howa, the founding member of the South African Cricket Board - the umbrella body of non-racial cricket - learned that Conrad was playing in their league. He marched to the club and declared Conrad a persona non grata in ‘board cricket’.
Conrad was fortunate that there were some liberal whites around. According to Firdose Moonda, he was ‘recruited by an administrator who formed a team of coloured school boys that played against the white schools in the area - thereby becoming a part of the white cricket circuit.’
However, unlike his father, Conrad’s career at the top of the order didn't have many runs. He was a bit of a slogger and was often caught in the outfield. After school, he trained as a teacher on his parents’ advice; it was a stable job with a guaranteed salary and pension. But Conrad was set on cricket.
He took up coaching, and soon his cricket commitments interfered with his teaching duties. He had local gigs and a few abroad, in England and the Netherlands. Things came to a head when his headmaster asked him to choose between his teaching job and his comings and goings. Conrad knew what he wanted, he chose the unstable world of cricket.
It wasn’t an easy choice. They were going to look different and tough for his family, but he was confident that he could find a way to make things work.
More than 20 years after making the decision. More than 20 years after his coaching journey began, after he built and rebuilt teams, after he won and lost domestic titles, Conrad was staring at his biggest challenge yet. He faced the unenviable task of cooking beef potjie in less than five hours.
Conrad and his team didn’t have a full pantry to work with, so they had to be creative in finding agents that help tenderise the meat. They settled for Coca-Cola. The beverage helped, but not fully. The meat was still chewy when they served it. They were the last station to put food on plates.
The gamble to use Coca-Cola had worked because, though the meat wasn’t melting in the mouth, it was good. They had found a way.
However, Conrad's beef potjie wasn't as good as Tristan Stubbs, Aiden Markram, Gerald Coetzee, and Marco Jansen's chicken potjie. The quartet turned what had begun as an unappealing chicken soup into a tasty meal. Markram described the unit’s victory as a miracle. It’s not easy to win a potjie cook-off with a chicken dish.
There is no universally accepted recipe for a good potjie. Ingredients differ from one place to the next, one household to the other. Most use the Conrad approach, which is closely related to the Voortrekker method; they use gut feel and whatever ingredients are at hand.
Conrad was appointed South Africa's Test coach just in time for the 2023-25 WTC cycle. From the moment he took control, he has had to cook his potjiekos pot the Voortrekker way. The XI he fielded in his first outing as the Proteas' red ball coach in February 2023 was not the same as the one he kicked off his WTC campaign with 10 months later.
The side that faced India in December 2023 looked nothing like the outfit that toured New Zealand two months later. After the New Zealand series, every Test they played was a must-win for them to earn a place in the WTC final. That was not going to be easy. In Bangladesh, Conrad was compelled to field the eighth and 11th least-capped teams in the cycle. That side bagged South Africa their first series win in the subcontinent in a decade.
The home summer that followed that tour was marred by bowling injuries, with seven frontline quicks out of action. Conrad found a way by making inspired call-ups. He also wasn’t hesitant to add a bit of spice. Instead of experienced players, Conrad also had young bucks like Schalk Engelbrecht and Dewald Brevis touring with the side.
Conrad has one more potjie pot to serve, and one thing is certain, unlike the intra-team competition, he won’t come last. He can’t come last, but he can come first. Second, in the worst-case scenario.